Commercial radio's audience has grown by 500,000 listeners over the Covid pandemic, according to the first Rajar radio listening figures for 18 months.
Commercial radio now attracts 36.8 million listeners each week, which is 2.2 million listeners ahead of the BBC’s radio audience. The average listening time was 13 hours a week, versus 12.9 hours in the previous survey published in March 2020.
These results include a new passive listening measurement.
More people have been tuning in to radio over the past 18 months, but for a similar amount of time as previous studies.
MediaCom commercial trading partner Charlie Yeates told ±±¾©Èü³µpk10 he was pleasantly surprised by how well radio held up over the pandemic, when it was not feasible to run Rajar surveys.
“Surprisingly, the number of average listening hours was practically identical,” he said. “If anything, I would have expected a bigger increase in consumption over audience size.
“This study of course doesn’t include the listening growth seen in non-radio streaming services and all podcasts, which are on the rise.”
In terms of radio stations that did well, Yeates noted that LBC UK and Absolute Radio Network continued an “upwards trajectory”, with LBC exceeding a reach of three million and Absolute reaching 5.2 million listeners per week.
LBC London is the most listened to station across the UK capital, having the highest number of listening hours (10.6 average hours listened per week) along with a reach of 1.6 million. But Heart London now has the highest reach, at 1.9 million, followed by Capital London, with 1.8 million.
Magic London is now close to 1.6 million listeners, while Kiss London and Smooth Radio London have just over a million listeners each.
Across the breakfast show segment, Nick Ferrari on LBC London has more than 800,000 listeners, followed by Heart London with 734,000, Capital London with 617,000 and Magic London at 606,000.
There were also a couple of notable new entrants in commercial radio.
Boom Radio was reported to have a reach of 233,000 listeners, with average listening hours of 7.8 per week, while Times Radio reached 637,000 people for an average of 5.5 hours a week, which is below LBC’s 9.8 hours, but above the reach of TalkRadio (450,000).
Matt Payton, chief operating officer of industry body Radiocentre, said commercial radio's performance was “amazing” and “bigger than it’s ever been”.
“The time listeners spent more than made up for the loss in the workplace and vehicles listening,” he said.
“We are still seeing the vast majority of advertisers investing spot ads on linear radio, but the fastest growing commercial line is for digital.”
Charlotte Taylor, head of audio and publishing at Spark Foundry, told ±±¾©Èü³µpk10 that the Rajar results highlight the strength of commercial radio.
“Listeners not really dipping off the commute during breakfast and drive is quite staggering,” she said.
“Clients have been on a renaissance with audio for a few years, and these figures don’t show the interest in podcasts. The entry point is fairly low with radio but you can get real value. What is exciting is the different entry and touchpoints for brands in the audio space."
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